Wednesday, May 20, 2009

A victory for gun rights -- from the Obama administration!

I'll take a victory for gun rights regardless of where it comes from, even from President Obama. The unlikely victory in this case is the right of lawfully licensed concealed-carry gun owners to be lawfully armed in our national parks. There's more danger than bears out there, and the parks rule was set up in the waning days of the Bush administration, only to be suspended in the early days of the Obama administration. Now it seems like that gun right will be restored by Obama as he compromises with his own party members in Congress to get some votes he needs for one of his totalitarian state plans. Credit-card users will take a hit but gun owners will get something good as a trade-off. Win some, lose some. But it is a win.
WASHINGTON — Advocates of gun rights are poised to win a Congressional victory that eluded them under a Republican president.

To the frustration and discouragement of many Democrats, House and Senate lawmakers and aides say it now appears likely that President Obama will this week sign into law a provision allowing visitors to national parks and refuges to carry loaded and concealed weapons.

The White House is lukewarm at best on the gun provision, which was added to a popular measure imposing new rules on credit card companies. But the Democrats who now control both Congress and the White House appear ready to allow it to survive rather than derail a consumer-friendly credit card measure that Mr. Obama is eager to sign as Congress heads off for a Memorial Day recess.

“Timing is everything in politics,” said Senator Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma and the champion of the gun proposal.

A majority of Democrats in the House and Senate still typically come down on the side of gun control. But the fact that they have been outmaneuvered by Republicans on gun issues is rooted in the fact that recently swollen Democratic ranks include senators and House members who represent Western states and more rural areas where gun ownership is popular and deemed sacrosanct.

When those Democrats team up with Republicans, they constitute a clear majority in the House and Senate.

“It is a shame,” said Senator Barbara Boxer, Democrat of California. “But you have to come to a realization around here that at this point in time, the N.R.A. gets the votes,” she said referring to the National Rifle Association.

There's some delicious irony here. Democrats in 2008, led by Rahm Emanuel, now Obama's chief of staff, recruited some conservative candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives in order to win some elections last fall. But now those blue-dog Democrats are voting their conscience vs. typical libtard anti-gun views and the result is a victory for gun rights. Don't you just love it when an underhanded political move turns around and bites the devious politicker in the behind?

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